Welcome to the Daily Chizuk. There are two ways you could view your boss. The first way is to think to yourself, “My life is in his hands. If he likes me, my life is set. I have a career. I have a future. I have security.” So I’ll do anything in the world to please him.
The second way is to realize that he’s just a messenger to the real boss. I’ll still try to please him, but for a totally different reason. I’m obligated to try my hardest. I’m honest, so I have to do my work properly. And I should try to please all people. What’s the difference between the two? The first person is a complete slave and is awaiting his boss’s every beck and call. The second person has basically the same performance, but he’s not a slave. In his mind, he’s totally free. This is the Ba’al Bitachon (one who trusts in God).
The same attitude is true of the one who is a messenger to the real boss. Whether you’re a Walmart buyer or your biggest customer, they’re just messengers. Someone I know who lives with Bitachon (trust in God) once told me he was a little late shipping out an order to a customer. As a penalty, he had to take $10,000 off the price. A few days later, the customer said they wanted to take off another $86,000. He said, “I’m sorry, we already had an agreement.” They told him, “If you don’t do it, we’re not doing business. We’re not doing business with you anymore.” But this was his biggest customer.
He said to himself, “If I give back the $86,000, it would wipe out my entire profit. This is not normal hishtadlut (effort). I would only be giving in out of desperation. But Hashem is in charge, not the buyer.” And he told them, “I’m sorry, I can’t do it.” And they said, “Okay, we’re not dealing with you anymore.”
That night, he kept thinking, “Hashem, you give me my parnasa (livelihood), not them. I’m only going to do normal hishtadlut.” He called them back the next day and said, “Let’s try to work something out.” And they said, “We were also thinking last night. You don’t have to give us back a dollar, but you have a certain item that we want, and if you give us 80,000 pieces of it at cost price, we’ll call it even.” He said, “No problem,” and he gave them the cost price.
Later on, he was able to renegotiate and get a much better price. He was able to get a much cheaper cost price from his supplier. Not only did he keep the 86,000 dollars, but he made a lot more money on the new sale. This is someone who knows only Hashem is in charge. He’s not desperate. And because of his ability to put it into practice, he saw immediate gains. Shabbat Shalom.